The new launcher and why you should get it now

Dinnerbone has gone to reddit today to post about a new launcher for Minecraft that he would like the community to help test. I tried it, and think you should get it right away even if you’re not a Minecraft expert. Here’s why…

UPDATE: Mojang have released the installer as well. You can get it below.

The new launcher, isn’t really a whole new launcher, it’s more of an improvement on the old one, and that’s exactly why you should get it. It is a “native wrapping” around the old launcher, which among other stuff means that it comes with Mojang’s recommended version of Java. You might be wondering why this is such a big deal.

The answer lies in the fact that you most likely are not running the right version of Java for your system. This has a lot to do with the fact that Java recommends the 32bit version of Java to everyone, even though most people should be using the 64bit one. It is also messy and different versions of it can conflict, so even if you know you should be using the 64bit version, you might not be, because it simply doesn’t work. Using the correct version of Java can improve performance and stability drastically.

This new launcher does away with all that Java trouble and just plain works, and that’s exactly what makes it so awesome, so get it now:

Just put it into a folder (it’ll make some folders where it is, so don’t just leave it on your desktop like me) and run it. It’s that simple. It can improve performance, stability, and start up times – even if you were already using the correct version of Java, this will reduce start up time. Even if it doesn’t work, you can just switch back.

In the future this new launcher will allow Mojang to make the launcher prettier and ties into their plan of an actual installer for the game, so it’s good news all around. If you’re curious, you can check out Dinnerbone’s full post here.

That’s it for now, but stay tuned for more Minecraft news, as well as mod showcases and generally cool things. Like always, feel free to leave any feedback you might have in the comment section below.